


Magic, Tea and Laughs

by sugarby



Series: Taletober [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, Harry Potter-ish, M/M, muggle!Prompt, wizard!Noct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 02:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8232931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarby/pseuds/sugarby
Summary: It's Autumn, October, and the leaves are starting to turn shades of yellow and honey. The school year is coming back and magically-gifted Noctis intentionally stalls with comical tales to claim more time with his non-magical friend Prompto.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I could've posted this the other night but I'm glad I didn't because I've worked on it a bit and am happy with it :) So, it's Inktober but I'm a better writer than drawer, which means while I can try and produce work with pen, I'll have better luck here. I won't guarantee how many parts to this 'collection' there'll be but I do have more ideas for other fandoms, too, so hopefully this will go somewhat nicely. I appreciate if you read and happen to enjoy this, thanks :)
> 
> *fw; I'm not explicitly following any prompts.

          **T** hey wake up around the same time, almost immediately laughing over their spill of anecdotes. Neighbors on either side will be sweet not to complain because the laughs are free and loud, unrestricted and stomach aching despite any attempts to muffle them with the bed-sheets or hands.

          It's October and the morning of a new school year about to begin shortly for one. The stall through retelling of old, funny tales is intentional; If Noctis can claim more time to spend with Prompto, he'll be a little chipper about going back to school—it's pleasant there every year but it's a _whole, magical world_ away from his best friend.

          Noctis keeps laughing with his head thrown back against the pillows, "You did! Oh, man, you totally did! You tried to do that dance when you slipped and fell!"

          Prompto quickly denies it, embarrassed. "I did not!"

          "You landed on your ass!"

          "Jeez, you're so mean to me. Don't know why we ever hang out." Prompto says jokingly and nudges Noctis' leg with the same playfulness. He remembers replicating a piece of choreography, and yes he also remembers the floor being too wet and him then losing his footing and falling over, and the way the whole room roared with high volume laughter. He thought he'd never be able to live it down—it was caught on film, too, though luckily escaped being uploaded online for the humiliation to continue.

          That's never going to happen to Noctis Caelum. His best, funny stories have been told and every time it ends with him standing cool. It doesn't compete with the mishaps and cringe-worthy lows of Prompto Argentum's seemingly-perpetual life of disorder and good-times. Playing back in his mind what he just said about not being sure why they even hang out, it starts to make a little sense. It isn't because one of them's cool and the other's _a different form_ of it, but the lack of similar occurrences in their lives and the causes make it clear enough that they, or at least their worlds, are so different.

          "...Sometimes I can't believe we're friends."

          " _What_?"

          "Well, just...I mean, I'm _me_. Plain, ol' _adorable_ me."

          Noctis' chuckle is light and breathy; he can trust Prompto to manage to degrade _and_ compliment himself. But other than that, if this is his argument, it's not a plausible or hefty one. "Me too," several years prior to receiving his invitation-letter to the Academy and _'Son, you're gifted. Magically gifted.'_  talk from dear old dad. And it was a good, long talk that answered some questions little Noctis once carried. "For eleven years."

          Prompto scoffs, "No." he shakes his head, "Oh no—nothing about you has ever been plain and I don't see how it ever _can be_! Noct, you're a _wizard_ , okay. And a King's son. You can levitate things and you'll rule over a kingdom one day. I, _plain ol' me_ , am talented in losing socks that I put in pairs, burning my tongue on every first sip of coffee! And when that  _one day_  comes when you're King, I'll have to curtsy!"

          "That's _girls_ , Prom. But please, ugh, don't bow or curtsy. It's embarrassing. _I'll_ be _embarrassed_."

          Prompto's arms shoot up and drop in a furious frenzy, "How the heck d'you think I'll feel?! Sorry but...I've known you for ages now, Noct; to go from high-fives, _our_ _playful pushes to our backs_ , to greeting you all formal and proper? To tell you the truth, it's gonna be really, _super-fucking_ weird."

         "If you don't want to..."

         "It's not about _not wanting_ to, people aren't gonna give me choice to argue but, hey, I can get a kick out of it somehow. _M'lord_."

         Noctis' face twists, discomforted . " _Ugh_..."

         "Sire. My liege."

         "No. _Nope_."

         "Your Highness. _His_ Highness. Your Majesty. His slash Your Royal-Highness-Majesty."

         " _I'll kick you outta this bed_ , Prom." Noctis helps himself to a spare pillow lying around on the bed and hugs it while he thinks about the reasoning behind the term 'Highness'. "How does someone even become so high? I get it, status and all. But what if I'm short?"

         Prompto grins and bites his lower lip, "Whaddaya mean _if_  you are?"

         "Shut up."

 

*   *   *   *

 **T** hey dress to go downstairs and in to the kitchen.

         Noctis pulls along his large suitcase and leaves it to lean against the doorway. He doesn't think he can feel too relieved that he took wide advice and packed the night before, all the clothes and essentials would be a pain to handle now— he'd, at best, send them off to his room at the Academy with a quick spell. Across it's dark, glossy coat are various stickers and patches from some Academy clubs and naturally his house's Quitch team he supports when he can. Hooped around the suitcase's stuck-up handle is a thick scarf to put on when he leaves—the cold hasn't ever been too unkind to him but his protective father won't let him hear the end of catching a cold.

         Prompto makes and eats three pieces of buttered and jammed toast fairly quickly as his stomach grumbles too much for argument—gets the crumbs left sitting on his thumbs he feels he'd be twiddling if this were several years back and he was a shy kid. They're licked off and he pursues what's on his mind, "Anyway, to what I was kinda saying upstairs...my life's kinda crazy."

         Noctis didn't have their moments before his leave pegged like this.

         Good thing he's finished making their tea. Autumn's freshly beginning and he's got a low-spirited friend at his kitchen table. Professor Ignis, his most familiar tutor, highly recommends tea to be the beverage of comfort. Noctis knows near to nothing about that but the box he's got a hold of from his upper cupboards says its tea 'eases the soul' and 'warms the heart' and 'freshens the spirit with exotic aromas and spices'.

         It's seasonally appropriate in other words.

         "It's not as crazy as you think." Noctis tells as he comes over to set their steaming mugs of tea down on his thick, wooden table, and moving after to sit across from Prompto. "Just 'cause we're friends? Who even cares?"

         Prompto holds the mug, lets the heat reach his skin and inhales the tea's scents. A sip of it feels warms, as the box says, and not just because it was just boiled not even a minute ago. He stares in to the mug afterward like he's thinking when in fact the answers are too easy to check off, "Other wizards. Other non-magical people like me. Your dad. Your kingdom'll care eventually. Your professors."

         "It's not really their business, though. It's ours— _mine_ and _yours_. If I wanted to go make friends with a plant that'd be fine too."

         "That'd be _sad_."

         "Who even cares?!"

         "That your catch-phrase now?"

         "There are _crazier_ things than a wizard and _you_  being friends."

That's just when the crazier thing happens. With the wide, adjoining double-door window open, it welcomes in a dark, feathered creature with bright, wide eyes that swoops through the chilly air and perches itself on the ledge with a firm grip to balance itself. There's also a clean, white envelope in its beak. The head of it turns to Noctis, it blinks once and it screeches for him to take the envelope.

         "Uh...Noct, he yours?"

         "...Yeah, he is."

         Prompto's decision to say no more contrarily says everything for him.

         The long moment of silence between them when Noctis gets up for the letter is very well justified; he opens it up to reveal a short letter in fine penmanship—he knows before he checks the signature that it's from Professor Ignis. Feeling the curious eyes on him, Noctis says, "It's nothing. Just my Professor asking me to see him when I get to school." but so casually— _too_ casually while he has yet to transcend worlds, leaving the modern normality behind for the adventurous supernatural kind like it's as easy as changing channels on the TV!

         Prompto flings an arm across in the owl's direction, it turns it's head to him and ruffles curiously. "That's exactly the kinda—! I'm telling you, Noct, as your _non-magical_  friend, it's not normal for owls to deliver stuff! It's usually dogs...but here we have e-mails, too, and texting and, and...we have face-time!"

         "Prom—"

         "The closet thing to _charms_ here are bracelets! _Spells_  here are of dizziness when you feel like you're about to hit the floor! And  _Quitch_! _What is_ Quitch?! It sounds like fancy cheese served on fancy plates at just as fancy dinners! I mean... _Quitch_!"

         The dark owl screeches again then takes off flying through the window; it was startled but had to leave anyway. Noctis laughs, watching it, then laughs at his best friend who has the oddest freak outs ever. Prompto pouts at him for laughing. Noctis laughs more and shrugs in a hopeless manor, "What? What do you want me to say? It's just the way the academy does things."

         "And the way _you_ do things." Prompto says, giving an ostracizing expression behind the raise of his mug for more tea now it's a bit cooler.

         "For _the last time_ , there are crazier things than you and I being friends. Pleeeease let it go and just...at least _pretend_ you agree with me."

         "Ha. Doubt it."

         "Prom, on my first day, a talking hat that decides which students belong in which house basically told me to fuck off when it insulted my hair and I said 'looks better than a worn out head-warmer'. A _talking hat_."

         Prompto's lip quivers, he blinks twice. "O-Oh?..."

         "We call it the _Salty Hat_ —"

         Prompto's hands rush to cover his mouth but at best it only muffles the laughter, it fails to stop it, and the sound gushes out like earlier upstairs with no restrict. Back arching, eyes squeezing shut, he's heard something pretty ludicrous.

         "Guess I better not tell you about the time I tried to cast a spell on this jerk but it back-fired and I turned myself in to a Pomeranian."

         Prompto laughs harder and his hand smacks down on the table repeatedly, falsely begging for mercy.

         Noctis smirks. "Or when Professor Ignis told Assistant-Professor Nyx to heal my sprained ankle but he only made it go like spaghetti. Prompto, I swear, _no lie_ , I had _no ankle left_ to be sprained! Nyx used a dodgy spell!"

         "Wh-What? Hahaha! Dude, what the heck?!"

         "Aaaand," Noctis continues, though by now he's certain he's made his point. "It's a pain to remember but back in my first year is when I learned how to fly, and I thought any old broom would do so I just...sort of borrowed..."

         "Holy shit, no...." Prompto's eyes are wide and he's sitting up as much as he can for this while still holding his stomach. "Did you take a real, modern-day broom for cleaning and...try to fly?"

         "Well, yeah...but everyone thought I was messin' about, pretending to ride a horse." 

         Prompto bites hits lips and holds it in but he's gone, far gone, and has to take deep breathes and start fanning his eyes. "Oh man, I think I'm crying. Fuck. Where are the tissues?"

         Noctis' wrist and fingers communicate in a clean, skillful turn with a murmur of _"Levi'ato"_ and a box of tissues from the counter merrily sails through the air and reaches Prompto's face. The magic behind the kind gesture makes him laugh again as he reaches for some and blots at his eyes. His smile doesn't leave once, and every now and then he starts to laugh.

         "That's why we're friends." Noctis says with a proud smile, thinking that it's not because he knows some magic here and there and comes from the whole other different world to the one one his best friends knows, but because he can make that best friend laugh, because he can make that best friend warm beverages if it seems appropriate, and because—if he does say so himself— he makes a good delivery service.

         It's Autumn, October, and the leaves are starting to turn shades of yellow and honey. If the school year is coming, Noctis hopes it's going to also bring a lot more humorous anecdotes to share.

**Author's Note:**

> \- I actually bought myself tea to help with sleeping and, you wouldn't think so by the design but, it's got a strong and lovely spiciness that feels so Autumn-y.  
> \- Noctis doesn't necessarily attend _Hogwarts_ but I did make Quitch' from Quidditch, but unlike HP there's nothing against non-magical persons knowing of magic (but maybe a rule or two against the under-aged ones borrowing wands or smth). This au, in terms of magic, is a sort of mix between HP and the 'Charmed' series.


End file.
